Do Calories Matter?

So, the other day I read an article on the NYtimes website on my Blackberry titled “Calories Do Count.” Basically, the article talked about the rising resurgence of calorie-counting, which is something many dieters have done or currently do; and how this has led to, at least in New York right now, the now ever popular occurrence of calorie contents of food posted on menu items. I know it happened to me one day. I was in New York, near Time Square at the NewsCorp building and I went to a Wendy’s for a cheap quick lunch. Now, I know damn well I shouldn’t be eating Wendy’s, especially since I’ve been gym slacking. But I wasn’t about to spend $15 dollars on a salad I wasn’t guaranteed to like. And I hadn’t really eaten all day, so Wendy’s it was. So I head in there, and right there next to my #6 were numbers that said depending on my size I could be expending about 1000-1600 calories on a spicy chicken sandwich with fries and a drink. Shocked and appalled I was. I almost thought about not getting fries. But its not the same if you get a sandwich and a baked potato. So I settled for a small and a bottle of water. With Wendy’s a small is really a medium. I once got tricked into ordering a medium and had this big ass soda I couldn’t finish. But I knew i wasn’t trying to waste my whole daily caloric intake on just one meal. Do you know how hard it is to burn 1000 calories at the gym? HARD! Super HARD!!

Anywho, there is a law in NY that restaurants with 15 or more outlets were forced to post the calorie content of food next to the price. Now, do I agree? Yes and no. I think that yes, people should know more about what they are ingesting, however, I was perfectly happy going online or looking at the pamphlet they were supposed to keep in store if you had questions about content. I don’t like scare tactics. And this is a scare tactic driven by rising concerns over the obesity of Americans. Restaurants should have thought of this before they made heaping portion sizes the norm. In fact, as a result of this some restaurants have realized their food has very high caloric intake and to not reduce sales, they have reduced portion sizes-but not cost. So that is a win-win for them. Still sell and make more. You have to wonder, do they really care about the health and concern for Americans? I know who doesn’t, The FDA!

American is driven by profit. Companies are taking super advantage of the average Americans obsession with weight. Caloric content is spewed all over every damn product these days, and they make 100 calorie products in so many lines now. If people want to be fat, let them. You can’t make them eat right and you damn sure can’t make them work out. They have to come to the realization on their own.